Her first impressions of Takodana was that it was reminded her so much of home; of Earth's rolling hills, deep cerulean lakes and bright azure skies.

In fact, it almost reminded her of the Lake District, a place she'd been a handful of times in her life, most recently on a rather failed holiday with Luna and Ginny during the summer of '01. Between her PTSD and the constant lashing of rain and heavy winds, it had been a pitiful, miserable experience– to make matters worse, her Lotus Cortina had gone into a ditch. Thank Merlin she was a witch and it had been trivial to just levitate it out of the rut.

What was she going on about again?

Oh, yes. Earth.

As much as she was glad to have put behind her all the struggle and strife she'd known in her life on Earth, it was still a painful reminder of where she came from, and the people who she had left behind, and whom had left her behind.

Though in contrast to Earth, Takodana was almost unpopulated. As Ben piloted them over the dense forests, Harry couldn't see much evidence of civilization on this planet. Then again, there was definitely something or someone who lived here, given what was appearing on the horizon, nestled among the dense forested hills.

It was, in fact, a rather large stone castle, surrounded by flat open areas where a hodgepodge array of ships with differing aesthetics were all parked in a haphazard manner. She could feel the ship slow up as they approached one of the open landing pads. With a rocking jolt, the ship touched ground, and Ben moved to power down the ship.

"Keep your weapons holstered," he warned as he went through his post-landing procedure. "Maz isn't much of a 'rules person' but she's deadly serious about her no violence rule. This is a place where everyone can go without fear of… you know, governments and things."

"As long as nobody tries to kill me or rob me or something, there should be nothing to worry about," Harry said with a shrug. "I'm not violent by nature, Jedi boy."

That being said, despite all reassurance otherwise, Harry didn't inherently trust the code of criminals to not lead to some kind of wanton violence. She was intimately familiar with the likes of people who always thought that they were owed the world and all its treasures, and how some people wore their greed like a mask. It left her uneasy and, frankly, suspicious of just about everyone.

However, she did welcome the sight of a pub. The thought of getting something in her that was alcoholic sounded real nice right about now as she hadn't touched any liquor since that first day she'd arrived on Jakku.

Though, upon entry to the pub, the shock of the fact she was in another galaxy finally hit Harry. The sight of… aliens was certainly a jarring pointed message that no, Dorothy, you weren't in Kansas anymore.

She had expected some different races, if her experiences on Jakku or Han's extensive notes were enough to go off of, but the sheer diversity in the room was mind-boggling to her.

"Ben Solo!" came a very dry female voice as they got a few feet in the door.

Harry turned her attention to the sight of a short orange… woman? probably? sitting at one of the corner booths, with a wry grin on her face.

"Hi, Maz," Ben greeted, walking over to the woman with a chastised look on his face, before bending down to gently place his lips on her cheek. "It's nice to see you again."

"You know your uncle has been going crazy since you disappeared off the face of the galaxy," Maz said with a tut as she shook her head. "You've always been a bit reckless, just like your father."

Her eyes slid behind Ben and she looked at him carefully. "Who're your friends, Ben?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Ben looked around before seating at the booth. "Maz," he murmured. "These are some people I met while I was on Jakku."

"Jakku?" Maz said with a blink, her other eyebrow popping up in surprise. "Why were you on Jakku? There's hardly anything there other than leftover scrap from the civil war."

"I was… doing anthropology stuff," Ben said lowly, a look of guilt on his face. "That isn't the point, Maz!" he replied quickly.

The woman regarded him silently for a moment, and Harry figured that she merely didn't want to press the issue on what Ben was up to. It was clear that his… proclivities with this Dark Side thing weren't public record yet.

"You met these two girls there, then?" Maz asked, before she looked at Harry carefully. Harry felt the familiar pressures of Legilimency against her shields, and scowled, pushing back with her own Occlumency.

"Don't try to root around my head," Harry warned with a glare at the older alien woman.

"Hmm," Maz hummed, before she looked over Harry from head to toe. "It isn't very often a Sith shows up in this neck of the galaxy. At least, not in almost twenty years."

"I'm not a Sith, whatever that means," Harry said with a grunt. "And I have a name, by the way."

"Where are my manners, of course," Maz said with a nod, before gesturing for some drinks to be brought over. "You'll forgive me. Even in my old age, I'm still unaccustomed to meeting people so strong in the Dark Side who aren't bent on murdering everything in sight."

"It's fine," Harry said as a drink was placed in front of her and she took a sip from. It tasted like nothing she'd ever had before, but the vaguely-fruitesque taste was pleasant enough. "Name's Harry Potter. I'm… I guess you could say from another universe."

"Not entirely unimpossible, if you consider the power of the Force," Maz said with an appreciative nod. "If that is true, then why are you here?"

"I didn't specifically pick here," Harry muttered, rubbing her forehead. "There's this thing back on Earth. It's called the Veil of Death. Anybody who passes through it is considered to have been killed… my friend found out that it wasn't always considered a death omen though, merely that nobody who has passed through has been able to make the return trip."

"Fascinating," Maz mused. "So you decided to pass through it…?"

"It's a long, annoying story. Suffice it to say– a man who was… sort of like an uncle to me, fell through the Veil when I was fifteen. That was nine years ago. I'm looking for him, if anything to know that he survived, died or what."

"There was no evidence of his survival?" Maz asked. "Was he not on Jakku?"

"My standing theory is that the Veil isn't a static point in your universe. The few galleons I threw through the Veil as testers didn't exactly land under my feet when I came through."

"Galleon?" Maz asked curiously.

"A small gold coin… about… so large?" Harry said uncertainly, gesturing to the rough size of a galleon coin. She still had a whole bunch of them in her trunk. She wasn't sure that gold was worth much in this galaxy anyway.

Maz blinked before she reached into her coat and drew out a small leather pouch. Opening it, she pulled a rather aged looking coin from within and placed it on the counter. "This?" she asked curiously.

Harry looked at the weathered coin carefully and gently picked it up, turning it over in her hands. The weight felt right… and she could make out the face of Grogbaal the Magnificent on one side, and the shield of Gringotts on the other.

"Merlin's tits, it's one of my galleons!" she exclaimed in shock, staring at the coin in awe.

"This coin belonged to my husband, once upon a time," Maz said idly as Harry handed the galleon back to her. "When he was just a boy, he was one of the first Jedi Initiates to visit the Temple of Ilum. The coin appeared to him as he was lost in the tunnels."

She sat back and an amused smile crossed her face. "The coin appeared from nowhere and rolled down one of the narrow tunnels. My husband was always a very curious man, and his curiousity was what convinced him to follow it."

She turned the coin over in her hand and observed it in the light. "That action was what lead him to his kyber crystal, surprisingly enough… and so he kept it as a good luck charm through his whole life as a Jedi Knight, and left it to me when he died. It has been in my possession for… almost eight centuries, I believe."

"Eight centuries?" Harry asked in shock, looking between Maz and her galleon. "Merlin's beard, I was right. You all do live for an incredibly long time."

"Some species do," Maz said cryptically with a smile. "Some do not. It's all relative. So it would seem that your Veil is not merely a matter of a random place in the galaxy, but also a random time. Your uncle may very well be dead and gone by now… or perhaps he has yet to arrive."

"Bugger," Harry said, frowning and slumping down in her seat. "I was afraid of that."

Maz merely nodded before tucking the coin back in her pouch and slipping the pouch back into her overcoat.

"Harry Potter," she said warmly, her eyes bright with mischief. "I have a proposition for you, if you are interested."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the old pirate queen who snapped her fingers at one of her guards and barked out something in a language Harry didn't recognize. A tall, hulking bipedal furball lumbered over with a case and placed it on the table.

"I will do my utmost to see if there is perhaps record of your uncle's existence. I have plenty of contacts throughout the galaxy who can comb through what historical records we have. In exchange, I would like to ask you, Ben and your friend Rey to conduct some business for me."

"It would depend on what kind of business it is, Maz," Harry said firmly. "I don't do the slavery thing."

"Slavery is an abomination, I would never have someone do such dirty work," Maz said with a shake of her head. "No. There was… an incident on Hosnian Prime, and a high-profile Senator's granddaughter was kidnapped recently."

"Why didn't he contact the Jedi?" Ben asked.

"Because he doesn't want justice, he wants every one of those gangsters killed," Maz said simply. "Rescue and recover, with as much damage as you can do– but discretely, since there are the usual politics involved."

"Harry and Rey can't go into the heart of the Republic. They have no identification. There'll be red flags everywhere," Ben said with a grimace. "The last thing I want is for the New Republic to throw a tantrum over unregistered bounty hunting."

"You are all Force sensitive, are you not? Be a little creative," Maz said with a snort. "Besides, Harry here will have some insurance."

She tapped on the case and it popped open, before pushing it over to Harry.

"The blaster you have now, the one you took from the Millennium Falcon? Woefully inappropriate for someone like you, Harry Potter. Try this one out instead."

Harry reached in and pulled out the blaster within. It was almost pure chrome, with a sleek grip and handle. It certainly felt a lot less prone to breaking than the blaster she'd taken off the Falcon.

"Frankly, as much as I like Han, his blaster tinkering habit is dangerous. His guns have a bad tendency to jam or overheat at the wrong moment," Maz said with a snort. "An ELG-3A is a bit vintage, but I think it suits any capable fighter quite well. Plus, it's a hold-out weapon. Most sensors and scanners won't pick it up if you conceal it properly."

"Well, I appreciate it, Maz," Harry murmured.

"As long as you complete the mission, you're welcome," Maz said with a dry laugh. "Now, tell me about your uncle, and I'll get started on trying to find more information about him…"

The conversation with Maz had actually carried on a bit longer than Harry had expected. She had told her a bit about what Sirius was like, and his appearance and all the relevant details, and Rey had brought up her desire to know more about her parents. Maz had been sympathetic, but explained that most of the time, children abandoned to the deserts– or sold, rarely, if ever, found their parents.

Despite it, Maz had promised to at least try to find a lead about her parents, and that she could attempt to use the Force to determine some clues about the whole thing. The power of the Force was mysterious enough, wasn't it?

"That wasn't too terrible," Harry murmured as they climbed back into the Falcon. "It could have been far worse."

"No, not bad at all," Rey commented. "I wish there was more I could go on about my parents, but Maz is right. The only thing I know about them is the ship they left me behind on, but that could have belonged to just about anyone."

"If anybody can find information about your parents, it's Maz," Ben commented as he sat down in the pilot's seat again. "I can't believe she'd give us a mission to Hosnian Prime. That's the last place we should be heading."

"It's clear she has her reasons. We're not exactly known quantities, are we? Maybe you are to some degree, but Rey and I aren't. Plus, it'd also give us money to act independently without having to rely on the charity of others," Harry said firmly, before she raised an eyebrow. "Besides, what's so bad about the New Republic?"

"They're corrupt bastards, is the problem. You practically have to bribe every last bloody one of them to get anywhere, and the bureaucracy takes months to clear," Ben bemoaned. "Plus what they did to my mother. For all she fought for, for how she helped build that fucking state, she was turned out because of who her biological father was, who my grandfather was. I hate them all so much for their back-handed, double-dealing banthashit."

"Ben, corrupt governments aren't exactly a new thing. I've dealt with more than enough obstructionist bureaucracy in my own time," Harry said with a snort, remembering both the Ministry of her childhood and the Ministry after the war. The post-war Nobility Laws had been the final dagger in her childhood naïvete, and left her embittered and hostile to just about anybody involved with the stupid shit.

Shaking her head, Harry focused on the teenager in front of her. "We'll just have to do what we can, besides, I know a few tricks to make the bureaucratic nightmare easier to deal with."

Ben gave her a look like he didn't believe her, but shrugged and went back to piloting.

The time on the run from the Snatchers and Ministry, combined with her post-war paranoia and preparedness, Harry was no stranger to spending hours over a simmering cauldron, preparing any potions that might come in handy in a pinch. Of course, she rarely had a real reason to allow her obsessive need to prepare to run wild, but this was certainly a good reason.

When tangling with a criminal underground on a world she didn't know with people she barely knew, she'd need just about everything she could put together to put off a trip to the great train station in the sky.

The tickling urge to use that vial of Felix Felicis that she had in stasis was there, but she brushed it off almost immediately– that was for absolute emergencies only.

In the mean time? Plenty of blood replenishers, pepper-ups, and some old Weasley Wizarding Wheezes' standbys like Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder and Portable Swamps. The recipes had come with her through the veil as a parting gift from a melancholic George, and she thought they just might come in wonderful use here in a pinch.

That being said: she didn't even think she could ever be properly prepared for whatever lay out there in the cosmos; she knew how rotten the Potter luck was, and she knew she'd inevitably run into something that would give her more trouble than she needed.

She needed to blow off steam– but her usual duelling partners were, of course, on the other side of some spectral plane. Then again, there was Ben…

Grabbing the hilt of her lightsaber, she hefted it in her hand and decided to go find the angsty little runt in question. She ended up finding him in one of the smaller cargo holds. He was shirtless and in the middle of trying and failing to do push-ups.

"You're doing it wrong," Harry said with a snort as she leaned against the doorway of the hold.

"What do you want?" Ben asked between panting breaths.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to do some sword practice, but I see you're busy trying to bulk up. Why, exactly?"

"Lot of my fellow Jedi say I'm scrawny like a beanpole," Ben grumbled. "Want to get strong. Stronger than them."

"Spite training isn't going to give you the proper motivation to get muscle mass," Harry said with a snort, before tapping her own arm. "Push ups aren't going to fix the problem completely either, even if you were doing them correctly. I did a whole array of exercises that got me to where I am today."

"I'll show you how to do a push-up later, but seriously. Sword practice. Let's go, Jedi boy."

Ben gave her a baleful glare before sighing and staggering to his feet.

He reached for his laser sword, and it snapped to life with a green glow. He took up a stance that reminded Harry remarkably of a baseball player she'd seen on her last trip to America. That slightly crouched over look with it raised above his head like he was going to use it to hammer a ball into deep left field.

Harry grinned and drew hers in turn and lit it, casting the remainder of the room in the crimson red haze of her blade. She hefted the blade in her left hand and with a flourish, beckoned Ben forward. "You first, Jedi."

Ben growled and charged forward, trying to deliver an overhead strike against Harry, only for Harry to block it and push him back. With deft strokes, she forced Ben to backtrack several steps, narrowing avoiding being shishkebabed by her aggressive pressing hacks and slashes.

Despite pressing deeply against his defense, Harry suddenly felt herself being forced back by a push from nowhere. Ah, so Ben was using magic?

Good. This should be fun.

Rey wiped the grease off her hands and grimaced as she climbed out of one of the service holes. This ship was barely holding it together as it was, and she was afraid that all her efforts to keep it going were merely delaying the inevitable, plus she was concerned that someone would eventually tell Han Solo that his ship was flying around in the cosmos again. The last thing she wanted, or needed for that matter, was an old war hero trying to reclaim his ship.

As she stalked through the corridor, she resolved to bring the matter up to Harry– her girlfriend was quite sensible about this sort of thing, and would listen to her advice that this was a stupid death trap of a ship and not suitable for long-term use.

A strange cacophony of sounds coming from up the corridor derailed her train of thought. Following the sounds to one of the smaller cargo bays, she opened the door to find her girlfriend and Ben practically trying to murder each other, going back and forth with flashes of light as their green and red sabers clashed. Around them, a whole number of things were happening like some of the steel crates bouncing around the room and small creatures trying their best to attack one or the other.

"What the bloody hell is going on here?" Rey asked in shock, causing both combatants to stop and look at her.

"Oh, hello darling," Harry greeted, her serious expression evaporating as she gave Rey a bright grin. Before she could continue, she batted away an attack from Ben. "Just doing some duelling, that's all."

"You're destroying this cargo hold," Rey said, glancing at some of the dents and damage done to the room. "This ship is already in bad enough shape, I don't need to worry about this as well."

With a swift stroke, Harry reared back and kicked Ben in the solar plexus, causing the young man to drop to his knees with an 'oof'.

"That's enough for today, Ben," Harry said, glancing at the Jedi before she looked back at Rey. "Sorry, we'll keep the damage to a minimum in the future."

"I'm not against whatever that was. It actually looked fun," Rey said with a grin of her own. "But let me get a lightsaber of my own before we really cut loose, right?"

"Sure," Harry replied, deactivating her lightsaber and tucking it back into her waist holster. "I just wanted to get a feel for it in case I need to use it while we're on whatever planet we're going to."

"Hosnian Prime? I don't know if we'll really need to use a lightsaber there," Rey said, blinking in thought. "Blasters might be better."

"You don't want to go around with a red lightsaber anyway," Ben commented from the floor. "People see that and they'll assume you're a Sith Lady and start trying to run away or kill you."

"Well, isn't that sort of the whole point?" Harry questioned. "I'm not going to just pretend I'm not a witch or anything. If the galaxy thinks I'm an evil Dark Lady, then that's their problem, not mine."

She snorted. "At the very least, in a pinch I know I can defend myself with this thing," Harry commented with a glance down at her lightsaber. "Better than flailing around with it like a child."

"You're certainly great at pressing people's defenses, I'll give you that," Ben complained as he climbed to his feet. "I feel like I just went three rounds with my uncle."

"Your uncle sounds like he'd be fun to duel," Harry said, her eyes glimmering with that familiar mischief. Rey reached over and gently swatted her girlfriend on the shoulder.

"Don't go picking fights with Jedi Masters, Harry," Rey warned.

"I wouldn't! Honest!" Harry exclaimed, though Rey only gave her a look of disbelief in response.

"I have a question though," Rey asked. "How come you were able to beat him, Harry? You've never used a lightsaber before, and unless the Jedi don't train their students in it…"

"Ah, well, I sort of already have experience with swords," Harry responded. "This isn't that much different than that."

"We'll be dropping out of hyperspace in a few minutes," Ben said with a glance at Harry, before glaring at Rey. "I told you this ship could handle it."

"It could barely handle it, thank you," Rey retorted with an irritated look. "I've spent this entire trip trying to keep it from flying apart at the rivets."

"And I thank you for all your efforts, darling," Harry said soothingly. "We grabbed a ship in haste and Ben's familiar with this one at least, so it could be far worse. I would at some point like to have a ship of my own. This one's alright but it's not… mine, if you get my meaning."

"I do," Rey said with a nod. "I'm sure we'll get one eventually."

Harry felt the ship tremor slightly as the quick current of cosmic foam around it began to lessen. The eddies drew further and further away as the streaks of blue out the front window shortened. Then, in an instant, a large planet popped into existence, filling her vision.

Harry awed at it– it was tremendous, certainly dwarfing Earth, and from this vantage point, there was no green to be seen.

"Welcome to Hosnian Prime," Ben muttered.

As if on cue, one of the consoles began to chime. Ben pressed a few keys and a hologram popped up.

"This is Republic Transit Security. Identify yourself or leave this system immediately."

"This is the Millennium Falcon, ship register zero-zero-aurek-one-one-zero."

The holographic person blinked in surprise, before shaking their head. "Your registration has expired, Millennium Falcon," they said.

Ben sighed and tapped a few more keys on his console. "Transmitting additional information to you now."

The hologram drew silent for a moment before nodding. "My apologies, Master Jedi. Welcome to Hosnian Prime. You are clear to land in Sector zerek-five-forn."

The hologram disappeared and Ben grumbled. "Didn't think about my father not having a registration on this ship anymore. It's been lost for years now, when would he have bothered to renew it if it was rotting in a scrap heap on Jakku?"

"Unkar never bothered with registrations, particularly since Republic enforcement wasn't a thing in our sector anyway," Rey murmured. "Will that be a problem?"

"My uncle will probably be informed, who will then inform my mother and my father, particularly if the officer mentions the Falcon to him. It won't be a problem as long as we get off this planet within a reasonable amount of time."

"Is your family that dangerous?" Harry challenged with a raised eyebrow.

"Dangerous enough," Ben responded as he took the ship closer to the planet.

"Harry," Ben asked carefully as they disembarked the transport to the Senate district. "Have you ever used Force Suggestion before- oh, uh, have you ever used your power to… convince someone of something?"

"I think I know what you're talking about," Harry said from underneath her currently raised hood. Ben had loaned her his black Sith cloak with the strictest instructions to shield her face. Her eyes would draw far too much attention. Harry had suggested sunglasses instead, but even that was a little too 'unusual' for this galaxy. "You're talking about confounding someone? Making them confused so they think something is true when it isn't?"

"Basically, yes," Ben confirmed.

"Then yes, more than once, in fact," Harry said with a raised eyebrow.

"I'll need you to apply a little bit of your magic to the guards at the Senate. If they believe they've checked your idents, we won't have any issues."

"Hmpf," Harry mumbled.

Entering the main rotunda of the Senate, Ben strode with authority and intent right towards the lifts that would take them to the office level. As they strode, some of the security guards seemed a little jumpy.

Before we reached the lift gates, a security guard did his best to intercept them.

"I'm sorry, Master Jedi– I'm sure you're terribly busy, but we require identification checks before you can go to the upper levels," the man said apologetically, wincing.

"Here," Ben said, handing over his identification that proved that yes, he was, in fact, Ben Solo-Organa, and a Jedi Disciple.

"Thank you, and your friends?" he asked weakly. Harry could feel that her latent presence was causing the man a great deal of distress. She idly wondered if this was what Tom felt like at times.

With a wave of her hand, she pressed on her magic and hissed out the incantation for a confundus. "You already checked our IDs, remember?"

The man's eyes got a bit distant before they resharpened. He blinked a couple times before nodding reluctantly.

"That's right, um. My apologies. I… I seem to have forgotten your names. I just need them for the public records, if you wouldn't-"

"Minerva Evans," Harry said smoothly. "And this is my betrothed, Luna Lovegood."

"Right, of course, thank you. Um. Have a good day, Master Jedi. Miss Evans. Miss Lovegood."

The security guard left, the miasma of confusion lingering about him as we stepped into the elevator.

"Luna Lovegood?" Rey asked as soon as the doors had shut, slapping Harry's shoulder. "That sounds like something you got from a cheesy porn film!"

"Hey, I'll have you know that Luna was a dear friend of mine with a slightly unfortunate last name. It's a good thing she really did love good, or it would've been false advertising," Harry said before sticking her tongue out at her girlfriend– which really clashed with the whole "murderous mystery person" vibe she was giving out at the time.

Harry drew her face back to a schooled expression as they stepped off the elevator and walked the distance to the office in question.

"Here we are. This is the office for the particular Senator that Maz was talking about," Ben grumbled before knocking on the door a few times. After a couple minutes of no response, Ben knocked again. Almost immediately, the door opened and a scowling older man was standing in the doorway.

"What is it? I don't have time for visitors!" he barked with annoyance. "And I didn't send for any karking Jedi!"

He attempted to slam the door in their face but Harry stepped forward and stopped the door with her bare hand.

"Senator," Harry said darkly, pulling her hood back. "We're here on behalf of Maz Kanata. You had a… rodent problem that needs handling?"

Immediately, the man's ire vanished. He seemed almost fearful.

"Yes, yes, come in. Be quick about it," he hissed, waving the three of them in. Harry took a seat on one of his plush armchairs and the fretting old man quickly went over to a nearby tea kettle and hotplate. "Tea?"

"Ah, tea. A man after my own heart," Harry said evenly, before her eyes lazily drifted to the man's trembling hands. "You seem to be shaking, Senator."

"Ah, this?" he said, looking down at his hand. He shook his hands violently before shaking his head. "Just… nerves. My great-granddaughter is very near and dear to my heart, is all," he said neutrally.

"You're not afraid of me, are you?" Harry asked, eyebrow raised.

"What?" he yelped. "No, not at all. Um. I just didn't expect Maz to… send someone like you, really."

"Someone like me?" Harry said with an amused voice.

"I'm not a fool, young lady," the man said, furrowing his eyebrows. "I was in the Senate forty years ago, I remember the Clone Wars. Frankly, I was unaware that the Sith were still around. I'd thought that the Jedi… what was his name, Starkiller? Had taken care of the Sith twenty years ago."

"Skywalker," Ben grumbled. "His name is Skywalker."

"Yes, well… strangely, here I am. The last of the Sith lineage or some other fruity declaration of my loyalty to the dark." Harry said lightly, drinking some of the tea he had offered her. "That unpleasantness aside, shall we talk business?"

"Yes, right," the Senator murmured as he crossed the room and sat at his desk. He dropped a couple of somethings into his tea and took a deep drink of it. "How much do you know about the operations of the Black Sun?"

"I would prefer you explain it," Harry said indifferently.

"Right. Okay. The Black Sun is a criminal organization that dates back to the twilight of the Ruusan Republic. They were, ah, briefly suppressed by the Empire and the ISB, but they've festered and returned to full-froth in the last… twenty or so years. Particularly since they joined forces with the Death Watch."

Harry stilled, before leaning forward and glaring at the man. "The what?"

"Death Watch. A group of bloody Mandalorian terrorists," the Senator bemoaned, rubbing his forehead. "It's a long, sordid story that I don't even know all the details about. But about… fifteen years ago or so, they suddenly changed tactics. They had originally been targeting the Imperial Remnants for what they did to Mandalore, but suddenly they started attacking everything indiscriminately, and joined up with the Black Sun."

"You suspect they were responsible for the kidnapping of your great-granddaughter?" Rey asked.

"They're one of the only ones who could've done it," the Senator groused. "I've been advocating a set of treaties with the Restored Mandalorians to build diplomatic relations and finally start restoring order to the Outer Rim. I have been beset left and right by the Core First caucus, and by these terrorists. Apparently whatever transpired fifteen years ago has a lot to do with the Mand'alor and the Restored Mandalorians."

"The Mand'alor has a working relationship with my uncle," Ben said. "I've met him on numerous occassions. It has everything to do with the Darksaber. Senator, are you familiar with Ahsoka Tano?"

"Ahsoka Tano? Ah, yes, I remember her. Togruta girl, right?" The Senator asked thoughtfully. "I was one of the few who voted against her execution. I never trusted that sleemo Tarkin or the Chancellor. History has well-vindicated my views in particular, but alas… we're getting off topic. What about her, Master Jedi?"

"She explained the story to me once," Ben spoke plainly, clearing his throat and grimacing. "…or rather, one of the key parts of the Mandalorian conflict. The Darksaber was a piece of Mandalorian history that they stole from the Old Jedi Order. It has long been regarded as a symbol of leadership for the Old Mandalorians. I've been told that the concept was briefly dropped from use during the reign of Duchess Satine, but was subsequently restored by the disparate sects."

"So the Mand'alor took the Darksaber during this event fifteen years ago and the Death Watch are bloody well upset about it," Harry responded boredly. "And since you're an advocate of granting legitimacy to this person who they're upset with, they've decided that your great-granddaughter has to pay the price for it."

"Exactly," the Senator said with a nod. "I was hoping for something… clandestine, so I reached out to Maz. Her connections with the criminal underground and her sense of ethical morality are unparalleled. I didn't want the Jedi involved, but…"

"I am not here at the behest of the Jedi Order, Senator," Ben explained.

"Do you think I am a Jedi, Senator?" Harry asked evenly.

"No, of course not. As I said, I wasn't expecting a Sith. A mercenary with a big bloody rocket? Sure, but not a Sith, but I suppose beggars cannot be choosers."

He took in a deep breath. "They tend to congregate down in the lower levels. I've actually already had some connections in the Planet Defense Force do some digging, and I know exactly where they're hiding. I would like for you to flush the vermin out and save my great-granddaughter."

"I believe that can be done," Harry said evenly. "But there is one thing I would ask in return, Senator."

The Senator merely raised an eyebrow.

"The ship we are travelling on is… shall we say, not the most discreet thing in the galaxy," Harry explained. "It is a ship with a storied name, and an even more storied history. We would like a ship that is… rather anonymous. New, you might say."

The Senator leaned back in his chair and wove his fingers together in thought. "Most mercenaries would ask for their weight in cred chips. Perhaps employing Sith to do dirty work isn't the worst thing ever."

"From my experiences, ah, cred chips have limited worth," Ben interjected with a sniff. "They lose their value the instant you set foot outside of the New Republic's limited jurisdiction."

"Ah-ha, wise," the Senator chortled, before he reached over for a datapad and poked it a couple times. "You have a deal. Once the situation is resolved, I will outfit you with the best ship I can."

"Good," Harry said, leaning back in her chair, a satisfied smile on her face.